Aemulatio as a method for adaptive reuse

Abstract

Changes in agricultural practices over the past century in Sweden have rendered many granaries, once considered status symbols, as obsolete figures in the landscape. The construction sector plays a significant role in the current environmentally unsustainable resource consumption rate. Taking care of what has already been built is one way towards a more sustainable practice, both for environmental and cultural heritage reasons. Granaries hold a narrative of past agricultural and building practices, and as they were built to store many tons of grain, they often have sturdy constructions which could potentially last a long time. This thesis project explores how vocabulary borrowed from art can guide the process of the adaptive reuse of a disused granary into a brewing collective. Adaptive reuse is discussed through two intersecting approaches; the concept of different stages of copying, based on the logic of ‘aemulatio’ as described by Plevoets and Van Cleempoel in the book “Adaptive Reuse of the Built Heritage” (2019) and the danish architect Nicolai Bo Andersen’s ”Arkitekturens transformation - fem metoder” (2015). Both methods entail making alterations through interpreting the existing, and thereby nuances the long-standing approach of having additions contrast with the existing. The aim of using aemulatio as a method is not to revisit the past, but rather to revitalize the existing and intensify its qualities. Following the logic of aemulatio, the transformation both blurs the distinction between existing and new, as well as introduces new materials and forms. Using Andersen´s method, the granary is understood through different perspectives; through a technical, historical and experiential lens. The alterations are examined in different scales through abstracting the existing to digital models, copies, from the granary´s silhouette in the landscape, to portraying details. The result is not a definitive answer to how the granary should best be transformed but rather an exploration of a process. Within this thesis, adaptive reuse is explored in a rural setting, but aims to describe a method which could be further applicable.